Don't Knock Perks For Football Players, They've Earned A Reward

February 21, 1986|By Creig Ewing of the Sentinel Staff

Recently there has been some grumbling that high school football players get all sorts of goodies such as special trips and pregame meals while the rest of the students are left holding the brown paper bag.

It's an old gripe, but it has been Heimliched back to life since Titusville Astronaut football coach Jay Donnelly was found to have been tending an unauthorized bank account to pay for extra coaches, meals, a party and an annual trip to a college game for the football team.

Donnelly knows he was wrong. He tried to circumvent school-board policy by opening the Eagle Account four years ago to pay the extra coaches. But before that, money for the meals and trips for players always has been available in a proper account.

Anyone who would begrudge a football player dinner at Quincy's once a week and a trip to a college football game every year must simply be envious.

You know what football game the War Eagles went to this year? The Florida- Rutgers game that ended in a tie. These kids probably all were rooting for Florida and got to see the Gators embarrass themselves. Something really to be jealous about.

Football players work awfully hard. They begin practice two weeks before school opens, holding sessions two and sometimes three times a day during the hottest time of the year.

If you think running drills with coaches glaring at you when you are exhausted and sweaty is fun, try it sometime.

That's just the beginning. The teams practice for hours after school through November and sometimes into December. Then, of course, there is spring practice. They constantly risk injury.

Ten dinners and a trip to a Gators game would cost around $100. Just imagine how much more a football player could make if he decided to quit and take a minimum-wage job flipping burgers.

Sure, some will benefit by having their college paid for them, and a few might even make a career out of it. But most won't.

However, for some reason people persist in thinking that all high school football players think they are going to be big stars in the NFL and make a lot of money.

That's nonsense. Sure, some players do have high aspirations, but most won't even score a touchdown or grab an interception their entire high school career.

You think those guys are banking on a big-bucks football career? The biggest notoriety they may get is having their name misspelled in the paper once or twice.

I'd be willing to bet that more band members are able to turn their talent into jobs and college scholarships.

Sure, football is supposed to be fun, and that is reason enough to do it, but fun or not, it's hard work at the risk of injury.

There are other risks, too. When I was a junior at Dulles High School in Stafford, Texas, our football team was having its best season in a long time. We were 10-0 and in the first round of the playoffs.

Willowridge scored a touchdown with just over a minute left, but we still led, 14-13. Our kick returner fielded the ball at the 1-yard line. Instead of running forward, he stepped into the end zone to down the ball.

Willowridge was awarded two points for a safety and won, 15-14. That boy who made the mistake was not treated very well by the his classmates for the rest of the year.

I kind of doubt that a girl in the school play would be shunned if she blew her lines or a school journalist would be ridiculed as much for making a typo. After high school most of these football players won't go on to college. Being good at bashing the tackling dummy isn't much of an employable skill. Those memories of the camaraderie during meals and trips to Gainesville will be priceless.

For most the glory, if any, is very brief. If parents are willing to raise or donate money for trips and meals to make high school more memorable, the kids certainly deserve it.

And if you're a parent who thinks your kids deserve some of the goodies, too, don't complain. It isn't the tooth fairy who is raising money for the athletes.